10 Things You Need To Stop Being So Prudish About

When I was a teenager, the most rebellious thing I did was wear weird clothes, curse around my friends, and go to punk gigs. Otherwise, I was pretty much a parent’s dream: I didn’t drink, do drugs, smoke, have sex, nothing. I wasn’t opposed to any of that stuff, exactly, and I was far from conservative. Still, there were little things here and there that I found hard to respect. I remember thinking that trashy girls wore thongs and losing respect for my friends whenever I found out they smoked pot. Let the record show that this was in the era of visible thong, the concept of “slut shaming” wasn’t really a thing yet, and I had no problem watching stoner classics like Dazed and Confused or shows like Skins where teen debauchery was the primary theme.

Frankly, I was a judgemental bitch who was full of contradictions and almost lost friends for pretty harmless behavior. I was like a punky Millie from Freaks and Geeks:

Deep down, my judgements were probably based on other fears, like that fear that your friends decided that you weren’t cool to hang out with anymore, or that fear of trying something outside of your comfort zone. But these fears manifested in some seriously cringeworthy ways that I sincerely regret. Luckily, I grew out of it, but I wish I learned to be less prudish earlier on. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there who don’t seem to mature out of their pearl clutchy instincts and are, honestly, pretty irritating to be around as a result. Trust, you don’t want to be one of those people. Check out these 10 things you need to stop being prudish about so you can be a better, more accepting person. It might take a lot of unlearning, but the less garbage people there are out there, the better.